Ch 6. Species Interactions and Community Ecology. Part 1: Foundations of Environmental Science

Transcription

1 Ch 6 Species Interactions and Community Ecology Part 1: Foundations of Environmental Science PowerPoint Slides prepared by Jay Withgott and Heidi Marcum Copyright 2006 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

2 Case Study: Black and white and spread all over Small, black and white shellfish Introduced to Lake St. Clair, Canada, in 1988, in discharged ballast water Within 2 years, the zebra mussels invaded all 5 Great Lakes Populations grew exponentially - No natural predators, competitors, or parasites Hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to property

3 Species interactions Species interactions are the backbone of communities Most important categories - Competition = both species are harmed - Predation, parasitism, and herbivory = one species benefits and the other is harmed - Mutualism = both species benefit

4 Competition Competition = relationship where multiple organisms seek the same limited resources they need to survive: - Food - Water - Space - Shelter - Mates - Sunlight Intraspecific competition = between members of the same species - High population density = increased competition Interspecific competition = between members of 2 or more species - Leads to competitive exclusion or species coexistence

5 Results of interspecific competition Competitive exclusion = one species completely excludes another species from using the resource Species coexistence = neither species fully excludes the other from resources, so both live side by side - This produces a stable point of equilibrium, with stable population sizes

6 Niche: an individual s ecological role Fundamental niche = when an individual fulfills its entire role by using all the available resources Realized niche = the portion of the fundamental niche that is actually filled - Due to competition or other species interactions

7 Resource partitioning Resource partitioning = when species divide shared resources by specializing in different ways - Ex: one species is active at night, another in the daytime - Ex: one species eats small seeds, another eats large seeds

8 Predation Exploitation = one member exploits another for its own gain - Predation, parasitism, herbivory Predation = process by which individuals of one species (predators) capture, kill, and consume individuals of another species (prey) - Structures food webs - Influences community composition through number of predators and prey

9 Effects of zebra mussels Zebra mussels eat phytoplankton and zooplankton - Both populations decrease in lakes with zebra mussels They don t eat cyanobacteria - Population increases in lakes with zebra mussels Zebra mussels are becoming prey for some North American predators: - Diving ducks, muskrats, crayfish, flounder, sturgeon, eels, carp, and freshwater drum

10 Effects of predation on populations Increased prey populations increases predators - Predators survive and reproduce Increased predator populations decrease prey Decreased prey population causes starvation of predators Decreased predator populations increases prey populations

11 Natural selection - Natural selection leads to evolution of adaptations that make predators better hunters - Individuals who are better at catching prey: - Live longer, healthier lives - Take better care of offspring - Predation pressure: prey are at risk of immediate death - Prey develops elaborate defenses against being eaten

12 Parasites Parasitism = a relationship in which one organism (parasite) depends on another (host) for nourishment or other benefit Some species live within the host - Disease, tapeworms Others are free-living, and have infrequent contact with their hosts - Ticks, sea lampreys

13 Coevolution Coevolution = hosts/prey and parasites/predators become locked in a duel of escalating adaptations - Has been called an evolutionary arms race - Each evolves new responses to the other - It may not be beneficial to the parasite to kill its host

14 Herbivory Exploitation in which animals feed on the tissues of plants - Widely seen in insects - May not kill the plant, but affects its growth and survival Defenses against herbivory include - Chemicals: toxic or distasteful parts - Physical: thorns, spines, or irritating hairs - Other animals: protect the plant

15 Mutualism Two or more species benefit from their interactions Symbiosis = mutualism in which the organisms live in close physical contact - Microbes within digestive tracts - Plants and fungi Pollination = In exchange for nectar, bees, bats, birds and others transfer pollen from one flower to another, fertilizing its eggs

16 Relationships with no effect on one member Amensalism = a relationship in which one organism is harmed while the other is unaffected - Difficult to confirm, because usually one organism benefits from harming another - Allelopathy = certain plants release harmful chemicals - Or, is this competition? Commensalism = a relationship in which one organism benefits, while the other remains unaffected - Facilitation = plants that create shade and leaf litter allow seedlings to grow

17 Ecological communities Community = an assemblage of species living in the same place at the same time - Members interact with each other - Interactions determine the structure, function, and species composition of the community Community ecologists = people interested in how: - Species coexist and relate to one another - Communities change, and why patterns exist

18 Energy passes through trophic levels One of the most important species interactions is who eats whom Matter and energy move through the community Trophic levels = rank in the feeding hierarchy - Producers - Consumers - Detritivores and Decomposers

19 Producers: the first trophic level Autotrophs ( self-feeders ) = organisms that capture solar energy for photosynthesis to produce sugars - Green Plants - Cyanobacteria - Algae Chemosynthetic bacteria use the geothermal energy in hot springs or deep-sea vents to produce their food

20 Consumers: organisms that consume producers Primary consumers = second trophic level - Organisms that consume producers - Herbivores consume plants - Deer, grasshoppers Secondary consumers = third trophic level - Organisms that prey on primary consumers - Carnivores consume meat - Wolves, rodents

21 Consumers occur at even higher trophic levels Tertiary Consumers = fourth trophic level - Predators at the highest trophic level - Consume secondary consumers - Are also carnivores - Hawks, owls Omnivores = consumers that eat both plants and animals

22 Detritivores and decomposers Organisms that consume nonliving organic matter - Enrich soils and/or recycle nutrients found in dead organisms Detritivores = scavenge waste products or dead bodies - Millipedes Decomposers = break down leaf litter and other nonliving material - Fungi, bacteria - Enhance topsoil and recycle nutrients

23 Energy, biomass, and numbers decrease Most energy organisms use is lost as waste heat through respiration - Less and less energy is available in each successive trophic level - Each level contains only 10% of the energy of the trophic level below it There are far fewer organisms at the highest trophic levels, with less energy available A human vegetarian s ecological footprint is smaller than a meat-eater s footprint

24 Pyramids of energy, biomass, and numbers

25 Food webs show relationships and energy flow Food chain = the relationship of how energy is transferred up the trophic levels Food web = a visual map of feeding relationships and energy flow - Includes many different organisms at all the various levels - Greatly simplified; leaves out the majority of species

26 Some organisms play big roles Keystone Species = has a strong or widereaching impact far out of proportion to its abundance Removal of a keystone species has substantial ripple effects - Alters the food chain

27 Species can change communities Trophic Cascade = predators at high trophic levels can indirectly affect populations of organisms at low trophic levels by keeping species at intermediate trophic levels in check - Extermination of wolves led to increased deer populations, which led to overgrazed vegetation and changed forest structure Ecosystem engineers = physically modify the environment - Beaver dams, prairie dogs, fungi

28 Communities respond to disturbances Communities experience many types of disturbance - Removal of keystone species, spread of invasive species, natural disturbances - Human impacts cause major changes Resistance = community of organisms resists change and remains stable despite the disturbance Resilience = a community changes in response to a disturbance, but later returns to its original state

29 Primary succession Succession = the predictable series of changes in a community following a disturbance Primary succession = disturbance eliminates all vegetation and/or soil life - Glaciers, drying lakes, volcanic lava Pioneer species = the first species to arrive in a primary succession area (ex, lichens)

30 Secondary succession Secondary succession = a disturbance dramatically alters, but does not destroy, all local organisms - The remaining organisms form building blocks for the next population species - Fires, hurricanes, farming, logging Climax community = the community resulting from successful succession - Remains stable until another disturbance restarts succession

31 Community cohesion Frederick Clements = viewed communities as cohesive entities - Its members remain associated over space and time - The community shared similar limiting factors and evolutionary histories Henry Gleason = maintained that each species responds independently to its own limiting factors - Species can join or leave communities without greatly altering the community s composition - The most widely accepted view of ecologists today

32 Invasive species Invasive species = non-native (exotic) organisms that spread widely and become dominant in a community - Growth-limiting factors (predators, disease, etc.) are removed or absent - They have major ecological effects - Chestnut blight, from Asia, wiped out American chestnut trees Some species help people (i.e., European honeybee)

33 Two invasive mussels

34 Controlling invasive species Techniques to control invasive species - Remove manually - Toxic chemicals - Drying them out - Depriving of oxygen - Stressing them - Heat, sound, electricity, carbon dioxide, ultraviolet light Prevention, rather than control, is the best policy

35 Changed communities need to be restored Ecological restoration = returning an area to unchanged conditions - Informed by restoration ecology = the science of restoring an area to the condition that existed before humans changed it - It is difficult, time-consuming, expensive - Best to protect natural systems from degradation in the first place

36 Restoration efforts Prairie Restoration - Native species replanted and invasive species controlled The world s largest project: Florida Everglades - Depletion caused by flood control practices and irrigation - Populations of wading birds dropped 90-95% - It will take 30 years, and billions of dollars

37 Widely separated regions share similarities Biome = major regional complex of similar communities recognized by - Plant type - Vegetation structure

38 A variety of factors determine the biome The biome in an area depends on a variety of abiotic factors - Temperature, precipitation, atmospheric circulation, soil Climatographs= - A climate diagram showing an area s mean monthly temperature and precipitation - Similar biomes occupy similar latitudes

39 Aquatic systems have biome-like patterns Various aquatic systems comprise distinct communities - Coastlines, continental shelves - Open ocean, deep sea - Coral reefs, kelp forests Aquatic systems are shaped by - Water temperature, salinity, and dissolved nutrients - Wave action, currents, depth - Substrate type, and animal and plant life

40 Altitudes create patterns Vegetative communities change along mountain slopes - In the Andes, a mountain climber would begin in the tropics and end up in a glacier Hiking up a mountain in the southwest U.S. is analogous to walking from Mexico to Canada